An Essex town buoyed by the popularity of a reality television show needs to plan for when the "bubble bursts", businesses have been told.

Article: The Kiev city government has introduced a compulsory "mask regime" for its workers.
So far, the virus has killed 60 people, and is approaching, or has reached, epidemic levels in parts of the country - including the eastern Donetsk region, where fighting continues against Russian-backed insurgents.
Still, health authorities insist there is no reason for undue concern - an outbreak of swine flu was anticipated for this winter. The measures are primarily "prophylactic," they say, in order to prevent the disease from growing into uncontrollable levels.
"There is no reason for panic," Alexander Kvitashvili, the country's health minister, said on Tuesday. "Ukraine is in the same situation as its neighbours in Central and Eastern Europe."
Still, the disease seems to have caught Ukrainian officials flat-footed. And the number of fatalities, which has surged in the last week, is a cause for worry.
"From the point of view of doctors, the situation is serious," said Dr Fyodor Lapiy, Kiev's chief immunologist. "The number of cases of sickness are growing, and very many young people have fallen ill."
According to Dr Lapiy, one of the main reasons for the increase is the lack of a "culture of vaccination" among both doctors and the general population.
The number of physicians recommending to their patients to be immunized is extremely low, and the percentage of those who have actually received their flu shots is "practically non-existent," he says.
Another factor contributing to the seriousness of the outbreak is that many people do not seek treatment until the flu has progressed to an acute - and difficult to treat - stage.
"I encourage all people who suspect they have the flu, whether it is actually the flu or not, to go immediately to your physician," said Health Minister Kvitashvili.
Also, needed equipment, such as respiratory devices or surgical masks, are in short supply - or are misused.
However, this instance of swine flu also points to deeper and more chronic problems within Ukraine's health system. Seemingly,...

Summary: Ukrainian officials have introduced a number of urgent measures to head off an outbreak of swine flu in the country, such as temporarily closing schools and banning some public gatherings.
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Article: Prince William flew to an incident in Garboldisham in Norfolk on Tuesday. "Patient confidentiality" prevented the EAAA giving details of the mission.
The duke's first shift began at Cambridge Airport on Monday morning.
Later that day what would have been his first active mission to a road accident in St Albans was stood down, EAAA said.
Prince William completed a civilian pilot course in September before taking dedicated 999-response training in order to take up his role with the air ambulance service.
The former RAF helicopter pilot's duties will cover incidents in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
On Monday the prince admitted to "feeling the nerves" as he began his first nine-and-a-half hour shift as co-pilot alongside medical staff.
However, within three hours he was called on to fly a helicopter to an incident in Hertfordshire, as reported in the Cambridge News.
An EAAA spokeswoman confirmed to the BBC the prince and the rest of the crew were called back to base when it was realised the air ambulance was not required.
Now it has emerged Prince William piloted his first EAAA rescue mission the next day, landing his helicopter in Garboldisham.
"We are unable to confirm any more details of this incident because of patient confidentiality," an EAAA spokeswoman said.
Prince William's shift pattern is expected to be four days on, four days off, but will take into account his official royal duties.
Bond Air Services operates the air ambulance on behalf of the charity and the prince will be paid a salary which he is donating to charity.

Summary: The Duke of Cambridge has flown his first active rescue mission as a co-pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA).
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Article: It comes over claims of irregularities in the use of Fifa grants.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied claims by Dalung that there is $802,000 (£656,500) unaccounted for in its finances.
The discrepancy has led to world football's governing body halting its annual $1.1 million grant to Nigeria.
The federation insists there were no distortions during an earlier audit and that 'the minister was clearly misinformed about the activities of the NFF board'.
The audit report must be made public so as to promote transparency, build credibility and enhance your market value.
But Dalung, who was speaking at the NFF's Annual General Meeting in Lagos, wants a fresh audit of federation finances to examine how Fifa money was awarded and spent.
"According to a report, Fifa has withheld all development funds to Nigeria for lack of proper documentation of $802,000 out of the funds released to NFF," said Dalung.
"This is a very serious issue that must be given urgent attention to avoid another international embarrassment.
"Even more so that the present administration under the leadership of Mr. President, His Excellency, Mohammadu Buhari has zero tolerance for any act of misappropriation, misapplication, embezzlement or fraud in any guise.
"To this end, the NFF is directed to immediately provide my office with detail information of receipt, disbursement and application of the Fifa development grant accordingly.
"In addition, a reputable audit firm should be appointed urgently to check the account books of the federation to ensure that funds are judiciously expended.
"The audit report must be made public so as to promote transparency, build credibility and enhance your market value."
However, the NFF released a communiqué after the AGM saying its congress expressed satisfaction with the explanation provided by the NFF board on the issues raised by the minister.
It states that: "the audited account of the Federation for the year, as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, an internationally reputable audit firm, was...

Summary: Nigeria's sports minister Solomon Dalung has called for a "reputable audit" of the country's football federation.
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Article: University College London researchers likened the impact to that of the death of a close friend or relative.
They said the most important factor in developing a sense of mental wellbeing was parents' care and responsiveness.
But controlling parents restricted their children's autonomy and stopped them developing a strong self-identity.
They prevented them from learning from their own mistakes or conflicts.
And this had a strong and persistent link with poor mental health throughout their life.
Children with caring parents were more securely attached and therefore better able to manage future relationships, the researchers said.
Mothers' and fathers' care were equally important predictors of mental health through to middle age.
But paternal care had a greater association with wellbeing in later life.
In the study, 2,000 people born in 1946 in England, Scotland and Wales were questioned in their adolescence, their 30s and 40s, and between the ages of 60 and 64 about their mental health.
They were also asked to reflect on the quality of their relationships with their parents in the first 16 years of their life.
Lead author Dr Mai Stafford said: "All parents are to a certain extent caring and to a certain extent controlling.
"It's whether we feel our parents invaded our privacy or we feel we were well looked after.
"The more caring and the more understanding we are, the more we listen to our children and speak to them in a warm and friendly way."
Dr Claire Hill, clinical psychologist specialising in parenting and child anxiety at the University of Reading, said: "In the field of childhood anxiety disorders, there is a real lack of studies that include both.
"In some areas paternal care was more strongly associated with wellbeing than maternal care - the role of fathers should not be ignored when assessing psychological problems in children.
"Crucially the study suggests that parenting interventions should be aimed at both parents, and not just the primary caregiver, who is typically the mother. But while this is...

Summary: Adults who were psychologically controlled as children by their parents are more likely to have poor mental health, research suggests.
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Article: By changing a "few percent", Apple app makers should be able to run code on Windows 10 mobile devices, it said.
And many Android apps should run with no changes.
Experts said the move was an "imperfect solution" to Microsoft's problems persuading people to use Windows mobile.
For iOS, Microsoft has unveiled an initiative called Project Islandwood, which has led to the creation of a software interpreter that works with the development tools Apple coders typically pick.
By piping code through this interpreter and changing a few other parts, it would be possible to transfer or port iOS apps to Windows 10, Microsoft said in a presentation at its Build developer conference in Seattle.
Already developers working for game-maker King have ported the massively popular Candy Crush Saga to Windows using these tools.
A separate initiative, called Project Astoria, is aimed at Android and involves code built in to Windows itself that spots when an Android app is running and gives it the responses it expects.
Microsoft said this meant many Android apps would run with no changes on Windows mobile devices.
However, the way that Android is built means changes will have to be made to some apps.
The tactic is seen as a way for Microsoft to to boost its popularity and persuade developers to include Windows 10 in their plans.
While many apps are already available on the Windows store, some popular ones, such as Pinterest and Plants v Zombies 2, are absent.
Microsoft has also added tools that let Android apps reach some parts of Windows, such as its Cortana personal assistant, they would not otherwise be able to use.
CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber said: "The decision to embrace Android and iOS applications is an imperfect solution to an undesirable problem.
"Nonetheless, it's a necessary move to attract developers otherwise lost to Apple and Google."

Summary: Microsoft is releasing software tools that make it easier to run popular Apple and Android apps on Windows mobile devices.
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Article: ITV's The Only Way is Essex (Towie) has been "largely positive" for Brentwood, where it is set, but "everything has a shelf-life", the council leader said.
Lisa Bone, of Visit Essex, added: "If its bubble bursts we could be left with stereotypes, not economic benefits".
A meeting is being held on Tuesday to discuss the town's "sustainability".
The show Towie, now in its 11th series, features ordinary people appearing in modified situations based on their actual lives.
Many run their own businesses in Brentwood, including shops, salons and nightclubs, which feature in the programme.
"Towie won't always be around and while it brings in a lot of tourism it has also given the town a certain stereotype, perception and image," Ms Bone said.
"Brentwood is full of beautiful historic buildings and family-friendly parks and we need to ensure we emphasise those, making the town attractive to everyone and ensuring its sustainability."
Borough council leader Louise McKinlay, said: "The popularity of the show has been very good for the town centre, retailers and the tourism trade, bringing so many people in to the area.
"Whether we like it or not, Towie has put Brentwood on the map. Yes, there's a lot about tans and nails in Towie, but there's also a great entrepreneurial spirit and that's evident everywhere in the town.
"I'd like to say that the only thing that's orange in Brentwood is our recycling bags."
Businesses in the town are being asked to consider Brentwood's "unique selling point and future branding" at Tuesday's meeting hosted by the council and Visit Essex.

Summary:


More than 500 speeding drivers have been caught by new cameras on the M4 in just five days.

Article: 'GcMAF' is an injectable product made from blood which was offered for sale at a health food shop in Bournemouth.
Cancer Research UK say the evidence for GcMAF is "scientifically extremely dubious".
The BBC has handed a file to the medicines regulator, the MHRA, which is now investigating.
In the UK it is illegal to sell an unlicensed medicine.
5 live Investigates received a tip-off that the unlicensed product was available from a man called Nick Greenwood, who works at Earth Foods, a health food shop in Bournemouth.
An undercover reporter posed as a customer seeking GcMAF for a relative with cancer, and was told: "It is one of the best ways to try and tackle it".
She was offered a month's supply for Â£600 and told the product would need to be taken for six to 12 months.
Patients are told to self-inject 0.5ml of GcMAF every four days, and spray the product under the tongue twice daily.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told the BBC that GcMAF is "an injectable blood product, the source of which we have no knowledge. We take this issue very seriously".
Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK and a professor of medical oncology, warned there was no credible evidence to support the claims made for GcMAF.
He said: "The papers that have been published about GcMAF are scientifically extremely dubious and several of them have been retracted after publication because of doubts about the evidence that they presented.
"If it was me, I wouldn't take it," he added.
At the small high street shop in Bournemouth, surrounded by shelves stacked with herbs and homeopathic remedies, Mr Greenwood told the BBC reporter about five cancer patients who had taken GcMAF, and none had reported side effects.
He said that two of them, who had late-stage cancer, had died.
He implied that they had not taken enough of the product, saying in his opinion: "You need to spend more".
Mr Greenwood took a medical history from the reporter and said it would be passed on to the shop's supplier - a British...

Summary: An undercover investigation by 5 live Investigates has found an unlicensed blood product being sold illegally in the UK to treat cancer.
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Article: Cuba's national football team was knocked out of the Gold Cup at the weekend but the team's return flight from the US will have a few extra spaces.
At least four players have defected since the tournament kicked off on 7 July. Maybe more.
The Cuban team came to their quarter-final match in Baltimore with a 19-man squad, just one more than what is required to participate in the tournament.
"I think it's enough to play the game and to play the tournament," coach Raul Gonzalez told reporters.
The American team's coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, seemed to feel his counterpart's pain when he said: "We know what they're going through on and off the field, so it's huge admiration with how they dealt with everything they went through."
Since Presidents Obama and Castro announced a historic rapprochement between the two ideologically opposite neighbours in December, relations have been warming.
On Monday, a Cuban embassy opened in Washington and an American embassy started business in Havana -Â the first embassies the two countries have exchanged in a half-century.
The defecting players are taking advantage of a policy known as "wet foot, dry foot" which, despite warming relations, remains in place.
The policy, which has been in effect since 1995, allows Cuban nationals who reach US land to stay and apply for residency - immigrants who are picked up by authorities at sea are not.
The policy has drawn the ire of the Cuban delegation during historic talks that have taken place over the past few months, and has been the scourge of Cuban sports teams for quite a while longer.
The Obama administration has recently said that it has "no plans to alter the current migration policy", including the Cuban Adjustment Act, from which the policy is derived.
Cuban baseball has lost several players to the US leagues over the years, but this has traditionally been due to the huge sums of money paid to professional players in the US and the poor economy in Cuba.
"Most of the defections have involved players leaving illegally (often with the...

Summary: US-Cuba relations may have entered a new era with the opening of embassies but defections to the US seem to be on the rise.
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Article: He added that "the buck must stop" with LTA chief executive Michael Downey, who he says has done "a poor job".
Following Great Britain's Davis Cup victory, Andy Murray said that speaking to the LTA about the future of British tennis is a waste of his time.
"The LTA do not run the game very well. They haven't for many, many, many years," Lloyd told BBC World Service.
"They have poor management, poor systems."
The former Davis Cup captain and successful businessman said the LTA had invested millions "but not in the right places".
LTA boss Downey said in a statement on Tuesday: "We value the opinions of all of our players on how we grow the game in Britain and our door is always open to Andy, Dan [Evans], Dom [Inglot], James [Ward], Jamie [Murray] and Kyle [Edmund] to hear their views and work collaboratively with them and all of our partners."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Murray criticised British tennis' governing body after inspiring his country's first Davis Cup win in 79 years against Belgium in Ghent over the weekend.
The 28-year-old said he "did not know where the next generation are" and that on a visit to the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in October he found "not one person using any of the indoor courts and not one person in the gym".
Lloyd, 67, who accused Murray of not putting enough back into the British game before the Davis Cup final, said it is "fantastic" that the Scot spoke out as he has "enormous power in controlling the way the game should be run".
"Someone must take the blame," Lloyd added. "Bob Brett was hired [as director of player development] and then left within a year, not because he wasn't good but he was in the wrong job. They hired him for a job that he can't do.
"You've got to put people in the right positions if you're running a company. The buck has to stop at the chief executive's door. He has done a poor job."
Lloyd, who says he twice applied for the LTA chief executive job but was turned down on both occasions, believes the governing body squanders the annual...

Summary: British tennis is "a mess" and the Lawn Tennis Association must make changes, says former player David Lloyd.
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Article: The organisation favours a tunnel, saying it offers the best economic benefits and journey time improvements.
But audience members at a BBC debate said its consultation made it hard to respond favouring the alternative plan.
Highways England said people could comment if they favoured other routes.
Highways England favours "Option C" - a tunnel between Gravesend and Tilbury - while the only remaining alternative is "Option A", a new crossing at Dartford.
The proposed road tunnel would run from the M2 to the M25 in Essex, running under the Thames east of Gravesend into Kent.
The consultation states that a Lower Thames Crossing is needed to reduce congestion at the existing Dartford Crossing and asks for views on Highways England's proposed route.
Critics said it was "a sales brochure for Option C" put out by Highways England.
"The way you have presented all this information makes it so hard for people to say that they want Option A that it is an invalid consultation," the Reverend Nigel Bourne, vicar of St Mary's Church in Chalk, told Highways England at the debate in Shorne Village Hall.
The church website directs users to a petition protesting at the proposal.
Option B, which would have connected the A2 at Swanscombe in Kent with the A1089 in Essex, was dropped in 2013.
The public consultation, which started on 26 January, runs until 24 March.
Consultation manager Martin Potts said the questionnaire asked open questions about other routes people might favour.
But he said: "It would be completely inappropriate for Highways England to present material that indicated all the routes and all the options we have assessed are equally viable."
The full Lower Thames Crossing Debate will be broadcast on BBC Radio Kent at 19:00 GMT on Friday and 11:00 GMT on Sunday.

Summary: Opponents of plans to build a Lower Thames Crossing east of Gravesend have called the public consultation invalid - branding it a sales brochure for Highways England's preferred option.
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Article: A public auction of just four licenses has raised €246m (£206m) for the government, led by Alexis Tsipras.
Only two existing broadcasters, Skai and Antenna, have survived, while the Star and Alpha TV stations failed in their bids.
The new licences start in 90 days following the controversial auction.
Mr Tsipras said it was the first time that the licences had been properly auctioned since privately owned stations started broadcasting in the late 1980s.
"This sends a message... a message that rules will be applied after 27 years of graft and illegality," the prime minister said.
The government has previously accused Greek media companies of being "vampires" that have lived on borrowed money and with overt links to Greek oligarchs.
The auction has faced widespread criticism and Costas Kimbouropoulos from Skai, one of the winning bidders, said:  "We were not contesting a license, we came to negotiate a ransom."
Trade unions are worried that there will now be a series of closures, redundancies and wage cuts in the private TV sector.
The country's oldest private TV channel, Mega, was excluded from the auction because of its large debts and has been hovering on the edge of insolvency.
The Journalists' Union of Athens has said: "Using the rules of a badly run reality show, the government is pretending to take on corruption. It is auctioning off to the highest bidder the public's right to be properly informed."
The government has defended the auction process, arguing that industry-wide advertising revenue of just €280m could only justify four private networks in Greece.
Minister of state Nikos Pappas, who ran the auction, said: "TV channels that will inform Greek people objectively... not depending on their owners' links to the political leadership."
Mr Tsipras said the money raised by the auction would be spent on welfare policies.
The two newcomers to the industry are companies linked to the Greek shipowner Evangelos Marinakis, who is also president of the Greek football champions Olympiakos; and businessman Yannis...

Summary: The number of privately owned TV networks in Greece has been halved to four after a government auction of new 10-year licences.
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Article: Four average 50mph enforcement cameras were installed in October on a two-mile stretch at Port Talbot and they went live on Monday.
But around 125-a-day have been caught in less than a week.
The cameras are the first to go into operation on a Welsh section of the M4, and during a pilot before Christmas around 700 drivers a day were caught.
However, Wales Road Casualty Reduction Partnership GoSafe welcomed the reduction in drivers caught compared with the trial period.
Partnership manager Chris Hume said: "There is a clear indication that there has been a decrease in the numbers of people exceeding the limit.
"Excessive and inappropriate speed remains a factor in collisions and associated fatalities and serious injuries on our roads in Wales.
"Our main priority is to continue to educate motorists about the effect of inappropriate speed with enforcement being the last resort after engineering solutions are considered."

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Auditors have questioned the way a health board handled funding awarded to a celebrity-led charity event.

Article: It said it had taken the step as part of an ongoing strategy to be more accessible and open about the work it does for the UK.
The first tweet that it sent from the @GCHQ account was just two words: "Hello, world."
It said it would be sending messages about its history as well as languages, maths, the outcomes of missions and technology.
In a statement, GCHQ media head Andrew Pike said the agency would not share intelligence updates or give away the "tradecraft" it employs. Instead, he said, it would be a way for GCHQ to get involved in debates on technology and cyberspace which was key for a "technical organisation with computing at its core".
This technical focus also drove GCHQ's choice of its maiden message, said Mr Pike. The short phrase is often the first that people learning to code get displayed on screen as they wrestle with a programming language.
One of the first accounts @GCHQ followed was @007 - the official account for fictional spy James Bond.
Many people on Twitter said it was ironic that they were now following GCHQ, given the agency's widely reported work on large-scale surveillance.
The Twitter account follows other moves by GCHQ to engage with the technical world. It also maintains a repository on the Github code-sharing site through which it has shared one of its internal tools called Gaffer. The tool helps with the analysis of large-scale graphs.

Summary: The UK's intelligence agency GCHQ has set up an official account on Twitter.
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Article: The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest living structure, and is home to thousands of plants and animals - it is so big it can even be seen from space.
Divers have found that an increase in the sea's temperature has been putting the coral which grows there under a lot of stress causing 'bleaching', which means a loss of colour.
Many types of coral have a special relationship with tiny algae that live in the coral.
These tiny algae produce about 90% of the food the coral needs to grow, and give them their bright colours.
Bleaching happens when sea temperatures get too high or low, causing the algae to get 'stressed out' and leave the coral.
This turn the coral white and leaves it very vulnerable.
An increase of just one degree Celsius for four weeks can cause bleaching. If this continues for more than eight weeks, the coral can die.
In 2002 the surface temperature of the sea water in the Great Barrier Reef increased by around 2-3 degrees causing one of the worst bleaching incidents on record, affecting more than 60% of the coral.
While some coral reefs can recover from bleaching in a few years, others don't recover at all.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority have now raised the bleaching threat level, and have said that there is a very high risk of mass coral bleaching this month.
The Australian government said it is working closely with the marine rangers to help keep an eye on the coral for the next few months to see how it is doing.

Summary: Authorities in Australia have raised the threat level for coral 'bleaching' in the Great Barrier Reef, after divers found that lots of coral had died.
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Article: Media playback is unsupported on your device
15 October 2014 Last updated at 13:18 BST
The steppe eagle flew 45 times over the Brecon Beacons wearing a miniature rucksack packed with scientific instruments.
The experiment showed that by collapsing his wings in heavy wind, Cossack can fly in conditions that would have grounded an aircraft.
Scientists say birds such as vultures and kites may use the same technique.
During each "wing tuck" Cossack's wings are, for a split-second, folded beneath his body so that he is effectively falling. This occurs up to three times a minute in some conditions.
Study leader Professor Graham Taylor, from Oxford University's Department of Zoology, said: "Soaring flight may appear effortless but it isn't a free ride...it also puts an enormous strain on its flight muscles."
He compared the technique to suspension on a car stopping a disturbing ride.
The 75g (3 oz) "black box", which does not interfere with flying, tracks his position and records acceleration, rotation rate and airspeed.
Prof Taylor believes the lessons learned from Cossack could be useful to human aviation.
"This kind of technique could potentially be used to keep micro air vehicles aloft even in very windy conditions," he said.

Summary: An eagle called Cossack has been fitted with a "black box" to reveal his secret weapon against turbulence.
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Article: The 50m (150ft) part of the wall was first discovered in 1998 but was kept undercover to protect it.
Now Segedunum Roman Fort in Wallsend is putting the section of wall on display, along with artefacts and a bath house recently excavated at the site.
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums manager, Geoff Woodward, said it was "really exciting" visitors could now see it.
Hadrian's Wall on Tyneside is a culmination of three-year project WallQuest - a community archaeology scheme which saw hundreds of volunteers taking part in urban digs over 30-miles of Hadrian's Wall between South Shields and Hexham.
Mr Woodward said: "We've uncovered another important part of our history at Segedunum and I can't wait for people to come and see it.
"Following conservation, visitors will now be able to see the new section of the wall, which is really exciting.
"Before the WallQuest project we knew very little about the civilian settlement outside the fort. Thanks to a team of dedicated volunteers, who have spent months working with the museum and conservation experts, we now know more about this unique landmark."
The original bath house, which was first discovered in 1814, was long forgotten until it was unearthed in 2014.
The 73-mile (117km) Hadrian's Wall stretches between Wallsend in North Tyneside and Bowness on Solway in Cumbria.
Hadrian's Wall on Tyneside is on display at Segedunum Roman Fort until 30 October.

Summary: An unearthed part of Hadrian's Wall is going on display for the first time in North Tyneside.
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Article: The drug - Kadcyla - adds six months of life on average to women dying with an aggressive form of breast cancer.
NICE criticised makers Roche for not setting an affordable price, in its updated draft guidance.
The drug costs £90,000 per patient but Roche said it had offered a lower - undisclosed - price in recent talks.
The two organisations have been in negotiations since the first draft guidance from NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), rejecting the drug, was published in April.
There is a real sense of sadness - and anger for that matter - that the new breast cancer drug Kadcyla looks unlikely to be made routinely available on the NHS, something that is obvious from the bitter language being used by both sides.
The decision by England's official NHS advisory body, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to reject Kadcyla prompted manufacturers Roche to claim the system was "broken".
NICE - not known for its strong use of language - responded by saying it was "really disappointed" in the approach taken by the drugs firm.
Read more analysis from Nick Triggle here
While this latest guidance is only the final draft version, there tends not to be any major changes when the official recommendations are published - normally a few months after this stage.
The original cost of Kadcyla worked out at £90,000 per patient - that is based on the standard 14 months of treatment.
Roche said it had offered to lower the price "substantially", but NICE said the new price - which is not being disclosed - made little difference.
Kadcyla is used to treat people with HER2-positive breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and cannot be surgically removed.
About a fifth of breast cancer cases are HER2-positive, and it is thought this drug could benefit 1,500 women a year.
It works by seeking out and destroying cancerous cells, attacking them from within.
Its novel action means it is unlikely to cause the side-effects, such as hair loss, seen with many other types of...

Summary: A pioneering new breast cancer treatment will not be routinely available in England and Wales, the NHS drugs advisory body NICE is proposing.
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Article: Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) gave £20,000 towards the Lap of Wales Challenge.
But the Wales Audit Office found the board breached its own rules and regulations in handling the funding.
Board officials said they would learn from the experience after auditors highlighted a lack of transparency and poorly-managed conflicts of interest.
Auditors also found the health board failed to follow procurement rules when appointing suppliers for the event.
The Lap of Wales Challenge was organised by Cerddwn Ymlaen under the leadership of its national organiser Eryl Vaughan and was fronted by the Welsh opera singer Rhys Meirion.
The event cost more than £150,000 to arrange and the surplus was £1,368.
The challenge saw a number of Welsh celebrities undertaking a week-long journey through Wales in July 2015 to raise awareness of the Welsh Government's changes to the organ donation law.
It was arranged in aid of Cronfa Elen. The fund was set up by Mr Meirion in memory of his sister who died in 2012, and was incorporated within BCUHB's own official charity, Awyr Las/Blue Sky in 2014.
The health board awarded £20,000 towards the event, with another £20,000 coming from Cardiff and Vale Health Board and £45,000 from the Welsh Government.
The report found £10,000 of BCUHB's contribution was awarded as a loan, but the paperwork was not processed by the health board's financial team.
Despite that, the funds were transferred.
Cerddwn Ymlaen said it was not aware it received a loan rather than a grant and would not have agreed to it, had it known.
To ensure the Lap of Wales project was not in deficit, Cerddwn Ymlaen undertook additional fundraising to meet the £154,054 cost of completing the challenge.
Concerns were also raised about a breach of the health board's financial regulations in relation to the challenge.
A spokesperson for BCUHB said: "The health board was very keen to learn from this experience which is why it asked the Wales Audit Office to carry out this review, as we recognise that to achieve the...

Summary:


London Underground train drivers with the Aslef union have voted to accept a pay deal for a new all-night Tube service.

Article: European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the "future of Ukraine belongs with the EU" while US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US backed Ukraine's "fight for democracy".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western countries of double standards over violent protests.
Ukraine has been in turmoil since November, when it scrapped an EU accord in favour of a Russian bailout.
The security conference is an annual event held to discuss military and political affairs.
Mr Van Rompuy's opening speech referred to the EU's offer of close association with Ukraine.
"The offer is still there and we know time is on our side. The future of Ukraine belongs with the European Union," he said.
Mr Kerry launched a broad attack on "a disturbing trend in too many parts of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans".
He said: "The aspirations of citizens are once again being trampled beneath corrupt, oligarchic interests - interests that use money to stifle political opposition and dissent, to buy politicians and media outlets, and to weaken judicial independence."
By Lyse DoucetChief international correspondent
Tug of war over Ukraine
Mr Kerry added: "Nowhere is the fight for a democratic, European future more important today than in Ukraine. The United States and EU stand with the people of Ukraine in that fight."
He said the "vast majority of Ukrainians want to live freely in a safe and prosperous country - they are fighting for the right to associate with partners who will help them realise their aspirations".
In an apparent swipe at Moscow, he added that "their futures do not have to lie with one country alone, and certainly not coerced".
Mr Lavrov said that a "choice is being imposed [on Ukraine] and Russia is not going to be engaged in this".
He asked: "What does incitement of violent street protests have to do with the promotion of democracy? Why do we not hear condemnation of those who seize government buildings and attack police and use racist, anti-Semitic and Nazi slogans?"
Mr Lavrov said: "Why...

Summary: Ukraine's future has sparked angry exchanges at a summit in Munich.
###
Article: The Productivity Commission paper said many aspects of life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians had "stagnated or worsened" since 2014.
But other key measures, such as education and health, had improved.
The report, released on Thursday, is Australia's most comprehensive study of Indigenous wellbeing.
It detailed a 77% rise in the incarceration of Indigenous people over the last 15 years. Although the juvenile detention rate decreased, it remained 24 times higher than for non-Indigenous Australians.
Worsening levels of psychological distress (up 6% since 2004-5) and substance abuse (up 8% since 2014-15), as well as no decrease in family and community violence, were other major concerns.
However, child mortality rates - particularly for babies under one - were down, and 11% more adults were getting their main income from employment compared to 2014-15.
Productivity Commission deputy chair Karen Chester said the findings should be carefully considered by federal, state and territory governments.
"I think the clock has been ticking for a while already," she told the ABC on Thursday.
"At the end of the day, we can't feign surprise that we're not seeing improvement across all of these wellbeing indicators if we're not lifting the bonnet and evaluating if the policies and programs are working or not."

Summary: Indigenous Australians are experiencing increasing levels of imprisonment, self-harm and substance abuse, according to a damning new report.
###
Article: The @ireland account aims to represent a range of voices in the Republic of Ireland.
Ms Marie, originally from the UK, moved to Ireland three years ago and lives there with her two-year-old daughter.
She told the BBC why she decided to apply to curate the Twitter account.
"I wanted to share my positive experiences," she said.
"I wanted to share the work I'm doing around body positivity.
"Ireland has a really strong culture of shame, and I wanted to change that.
"I've followed @ireland for a few years, and I know it has a high percentage of trolling.
"I was expecting a bit of racism, comments on my size and for being English but not a non-stop barrage."
After logging on to the @ireland account on Monday morning at 08:30, Ms Marie quickly began to receive racist tweets.
"I was shocked more than anything," she said.
"It was an eye-opener that a lot of people have hateful and extreme views - it was pure hatred.
"A lot of people saw an image of a black woman and made a lot of assumptions, saying, 'Go back to Africa,' and telling me to go back to my own country, when I was born in Norwich.
"I was getting 500 notifications an hour.
"The vast majority of them were abusive comments and retweets of those comments."
Ms Marie said the abuse had predominantly come from outside Ireland.
"It was mostly anonymous accounts and largely based in America," she said.
"I suppose people feel safer saying these things online."
Ms Marie's offline experience in Ireland has been very different.
"I've only been welcomed in Ireland so far," she said.
"I've generally been lucky that I haven't had many bad experiences of racism in my life."
Ms Marie criticised the racist posts, in her own tweets.
"I expected trolls, and backlash, and criticism," she wrote.
"But today I have experienced racism, sexism, fat-phobia and homophobia to a degree I have never known.
"I have had eight hours of non-stop hate thrown at me.
"I am hurt, shocked and appalled."
She tweeted about her ethnicity and background.
"I applied to curate the account to share my...

Summary: Michelle Marie began the week looking forward to curating the @ireland Twitter account - but soon after she started, she was inundated with racist abuse.
###
Article: Cleaners at Heathrow had written to the airport's boss complaining a deal for a higher rate of pay had been applied only to directly employed staff.
The deal had been part of conditions to allow Heathrow's expansion.
Heathrow has now accepted the principle of higher pay for all, but says it has yet to work out its implementation.
Citizens UK, the community activist group which has supported the airport cleaners, welcomed the commitment from Heathrow but said there were "serious and urgent questions about the timeframe".
Last month, cleaners and other agency staff at the airport wrote to Heathrow's chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, saying they were missing out on the London living wage.
This London living wage is Â£9.75 per hour - higher than the mandatory National Living Wage of Â£7.20 per hour for workers aged over 25.
The Airports Commission's report into airport expansion set a number of conditions for Heathrow, including that the airport should adopt the London living wage.
But this was applied only to directly employed Heathrow staff - and contract workers wrote to Mr Holland-Kaye to say that low wages denied them "dignity".
The contract staff argued that the pay levels - which for a 40-hour week could be less than Â£15,000 per year - were not enough for the cost of accommodation and transport in London.
"This means that some of us have to work several jobs in order to be able to feed our families," said the letter, organised by Citizens UK.
"This puts a lot of pressure on our family life as it means we work very long days and have little time to spend with our children."
A letter this week from Heathrow's chief executive to the union says: "The Davies Commission report contained a condition for Heathrow to 'demonstrate leadership as a community employer by adopting the London living wage'.
"We have accepted this condition as part of the planning consent."
But the letter says the airport will have to work with suppliers to see how it could apply the London living wage to all staff.
"We will announce...

Summary: The GMB union has welcomed plans by Heathrow to extend the London living wage to airport staff hired through outsourcing agencies.
###
Article: The talks will be launched in Ecuador's capital, Quito, on 27 October.
President Juan Manuel Santos urged both sides to be realistic in their demands, saying: "Time is the biggest enemy."
Mr Santos is trying to salvage a peace accord with Farc rebels, which was rejected by voters earlier this month.
Informal talks with the ELN began three years ago, he said.
The announcement of an "open phase" in the negotiations was made in Venezuela, which will be one of the guarantors of the process.
The others will be Norway, Cuba, Chile, Brazil and Ecuador.
It was six months ago that the ELN appeared in Caracas, together with government envoys, saying they were ready to begin proper negotiations.
But President Santos said that would not happen until they had freed all the people they held hostage.
The ELN insisted that the issue of the hostages should be part of the actual negotiation.
They seemed to have met each other half way - in the past two weeks the ELN has released three people.
And although they have not freed everyone they have kidnapped, they said they would release two more people before talks begin in Quito on 27 October.
The rebels have made a commitment not to carry out any more kidnappings, Mr Santos said in a recorded televised statement.
They have now freed three hostages in the past two weeks and have agreed to release two others in the next few days.
Earlier on Monday, the ELN freed a hostage in a remote location near the border with Venezuela.
He has been identified as Nelson Alarcon Jarro, a rice producer from the northern province of Arauca, who was kidnapped three months ago.
How significant is Colombia's ELN rebel group?
The Farc agreement was rejected by 50.2% voters in a referendum on 2 October.
It had been signed by Mr Santos and the Farc leader, Timoleon Jimenez, better known as Timochenko, a few days earlier, after nearly four years of talks held in Cuba.
On Friday, Mr Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts to secure a peace deal with the Farc and put an end to 52 years of...

Summary: The Colombian government and the country's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), have announced the beginning of formal peace negotiations later this month.
###
Article: Drivers from the Rail, Maritime and Transport union have unanimously backed the deal.
Aslef officer Finn Brennan said the new agreement offered "real improvements in conditions".
Maintenance workers represented by the TSSA and RMT have rejected the proposal, as have Unite members.
Aslef said its members voted by almost nine to one to accept the deal, clearing another hurdle in plans for a Night Tube.
The service was due to start on some lines at weekends last September but has been delayed because of failure to reach agreement with the unions over pay and conditions.
Aslef officer Finn Brennan said union members' "strength and solidarity have achieved an above-inflation pay rise and real improvements in conditions that will give drivers, and other grades, much more flexibility and control over their work-life balance".
Steve Griffiths, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "I'm pleased that Aslef members have voted to accept our offer.
"This is a fair and affordable pay deal."
Mr Griffiths added LU wanted to "deliver the night Tube for London as quickly as possible".

Summary:


The family of a six-year-old girl suffering from leukaemia are celebrating pioneering treatment which they say has "saved her life".

Article: The Dounreay Materials Test Reactor (DMTR) achieved criticality, a nuclear term referring to the balance of neutrons in the system, in 1958.
The site at Dounreay, near Thurso, was built using 600 tonnes of steel. It was shut down in 1969.
Large parts of the DMTR site have already been demolished as part of wider work to decommission the Dounreay nuclear power site.
The control room desk and panels for the reactor were moved to Caithness Horizons, a museum in Thurso, in 2015.
A contractor has been sought for the work of demolishing the reactor.
Notice of the contract has been released on 60 years since the first criticality was achieved in Scotland.
A system known as a rig and named the Zero Energy Thermal reactor installed at Dounreay in 1956 went critical for the first time on 13 August 1957.
This was the first artificially made criticality in Scotland.
Bill Lambie, DMTR project manager, said: "This month we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first criticality in Scotland, which took place in a temporary test rig.
"That was an immense achievement, and we are now poised to demolish its successor and the oldest reactor on site, DMTR.
"The removal of DMTR from the skyline will be a significant step for Dounreay, and will be a real and visible sign of the decommissioning progress being made."

Summary: Scotland's first operational nuclear reactor is to be demolished.
###
Article: The images show the prince at the family's Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, and were taken in mid-July by photographer Matt Porteous.
One image shows the prince playing with the family dog Lupo.
Prince George Alexander Louis - known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge - was born on 22 July 2013.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said: "The Duke and Duchess hope that people will enjoy seeing these new photographs.
"They would like to thank everyone for all the lovely messages they have received as Prince George celebrates his third birthday."
However, the RSPCA has criticised the picture of Prince George holding an ice cream close to the mouth of the family dog.
"It is lovely that Prince George is trying to help keep his family dog, Lupo, cool in these high temperatures," a spokesman said.
"We would advise people to be cautious when giving their dogs food meant for human consumption as some items, like chocolate, can be highly toxic to dogs and dairy items can be difficult for them to digest.
"Instead of ice cream we would suggest making an ice lolly from pet-friendly ingredients. Making these can be really fun for children and the end product is both safe and enjoyable for dogs."
Paula Boyden, veterinary director at the Dogs Trust charity, agreed.
She said she "would always advocate seeking methods to keep your dog cool, but possibly not in the form of an ice cream, unless it is a dog-friendly version".
"The cow's milk and sugar content in ice cream can sometimes lead to digestive issues. Whenever you do treat your dog, do consider the ingredients and always seek the advice of your vet," she added.

Summary: Four official photographs marking Prince George's third birthday have been released by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
###
Article: The court ruled that the president's Clean Power Plan could not go forward until all legal challenges were heard.
Designed to cut US emissions by 32% by 2030, the scheme put huge emphasis on a shift to renewable energy.
It formed the key element of the US pledge at UN climate negotiations held in Paris in December last year.
Introduced by the president last August, the plan set carbon reduction goals for each state and it was up to the states themselves to come up with proposals to meet those goals.
A group of 27 states, utilities and coal miners sought to block the proposal in the courts. They argued that the plan was an infringement on states' rights.
An initial attempt to halt the implementation of the plan until legal challenges were heard was thrown out by a US appeals court in Washington in January.
However the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to suspend the plan pending the outcome of the litigation.
The ruling could have significant implications for the president's attempt to cut down on carbon.
Under the Clean Power Plan, individual states were due to submit their proposals on how to meet the CO2 restrictions by September this year. That date will be missed.
It is unlikely that all the legal questions over the future of the Clean Power Plan will be resolved before President Obama leaves office next January.
West Virginia's Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called the high court's action a "great victory".
"We are thrilled that the Supreme Court realised the rule's immediate impact and froze its implementation, protecting workers and saving countless dollars as our fight against its legality continues," he said in a statement.
The White House said it disagreed with the decision and expressed confidence that the courts would ultimately uphold the legality of its emissions plan.
"The Clean Power Plan is based on a strong legal and technical foundation, gives states the time and flexibility they need to develop tailored, cost-effective plans to reduce their emissions," White House spokesman Josh Earnest...

Summary: President Barack Obama's plans to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from US power plants have been stalled by the US Supreme Court.
###
Article: The scarecrow, part of a Derbyshire village's annual festival, was on display at Scargill Primary School.
Head teacher Andrew Poole said the thieves scaled the fence and left only one plimsoll behind.
The school's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat is due to open on Wednesday.
More news from around the East Midlands
Mr Pull said: "Each pupil put in about a day's work on each on their own bit of material that they sewed into an intricate pattern.
"One of our TAs spent about two days sewing it into a coat.
"It was the fact it was their hard work that was taken that makes it heart-breaking for everyone."
He said the school's Year 3 and 4 pupils were in the village touring the scarecrow trail and would be "keeping their eyes peeled" for the missing coat and Derbyshire police had been informed.
He added several other scarecrows had been damaged or stolen from the trail, which is in its ninth year. All proceeds are donated to charity.
Louise Trueman said on Facebook: "Each patch had a design on them that all year 5s had chosen and individuals hand sewed them on. Lots of hard work and time went in to this coat. Please please return."
Trail organiser, Pete Lilley, said:  "People spend a lot of time and energy in producing the 65+ scarecrows that are on display throughout the village during this week, and to see those efforts destroyed overnight through mindless vandalism, fills us with anger and despair."

Summary: A Joseph scarecrow wearing an "amazing" technicolour coat has been stolen from a school just days before it was due to be worn in a play.
###
Article: He said his investigations would be "free from police, governmental or any sectional community interest."
Dr Maguire was speaking as he begins his first week as head of the police complaints system.
Al Hutchinson stepped down from the role in January.
Mr Hutchinson became the second police ombudsman for Northern Ireland when he succeeded Nuala O'Loan in 2007.
In 2011, three independent reports were highly critical of the work being carried out by the ombudsman's office.
One of these by the Criminal Justice Inspection found that the independence of the office had been compromised.
After the report's publication last September, Mr Hutchinson announced he would be stepping down earlier than planned.
He said that during his time as Police Ombudsman he would ensure the handling of complaints about the conduct of police officers would be carried out in a totally independent manner and to the highest of standards.
"The police complaints system must be wholly independent if it is to have the confidence of the public and the police.
"While we will listen to the views of others on improvements to the service we provide to the community, no-one should be in any doubt that the decisions and conclusions reached in individual complaints will be a matter for my office and my office alone," he said.
Dr Maguire's comments come after a difficult year for the Police Ombudsman's Office when concerns were raised about aspects of how it conducted its 'historical' investigations.
"The main problems identified by the Criminal Justice Inspectorate related to the 'historical' investigations alone and were largely failures in processes and systems. For most of the last year the staff have been putting in place new policies and procedures.
"Good progress has been made and an important priority will be to commence once again investigations into 'historical' cases and to ensure that the quality of those investigations is as good as it can be.
"We will also look at how cases are prioritised and the ways in which the office engages with the...

Summary: Northern Ireland's new Police Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, has underlined his commitment to the independence of his office.
###
Article: Erin Cross, from Chester, received gene editing therapy in the USA after a Â£100,000 appeal raised the cash.
Doctors have told her parents she is now in remission after the therapy which took place in August.
Her mother Sarah Cross said: "It means she is now able to have a bone marrow transplant in Manchester."
She added: "I'm so glad I pushed for her to get on the trial here at Seattle, if I hadn't she wouldn't be here today."
Erin was treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia using CAR (Chimaeric Antigen Receptor) T-Cell therapy which re-engineers the cells in the lab to attack and kill cancer cells when injected back into the patient's body.
"We got a call from the hospital who told us the cancer cells have gone - we couldn't believe it as she has never come back clear from any treatment before," said Ms Cross.
"She is running round now like any six year old," she added.
Erin is due to return to the UK within the next month for a transplant at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital where a donor has already been found.

Summary:


The Grand Tour presenter Richard Hammond is vowing to be "back in action soon" following surgery on his knee after a car crash in Switzerland.

Article: The 59-year-old, who missed out on the England job in 2012, was approached by the RFU after the World Cup in 2015.
No European side made the semi-finals of the World Cup, with New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina reaching the last four.
"I think it is a mindset thing," said South African Mallett.
"Teams will have learned after the World Cup that in order to win major events, you have to be very effective in attack," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
Why do Six Nations teams lag behind?
"In the final game of the Six Nations last year, when teams were forced to score points to win the competition, we saw three absolutely brilliant games [featuring 27 tries], which weren't replicated in the World Cup by any of the northern hemisphere teams."
"Four years away from a World Cup, [you need] to develop a game plan to match New Zealand, Australia or Argentina going into 2019," he said.
Mallett, a former Springbok international, coached South Africa to a record-breaking run of victories in 1998, and was in charge of Italy from 2007 to 2011.
Media playback is not supported on this device
He is working as a rugby statistical analyst with Accenture during the Six Nations, and the numbers from last season's championship are revealing. In the Wales against Ireland match in Cardiff, Ireland carried a substantial 415 metres, but only scored 16 points. This is a problem that needs addressing, according to Mallett.
"You have to create try-scoring opportunities, which northern hemisphere teams haven't done," he said.
"Ireland against Wales in the Six Nations last year, I remember clearly a period when Ireland hammered away around the fringes with their wide players completely and utterly unmarked. You would never see New Zealand making that mistake."
However, Mallett does feel northern hemisphere sides have the potential to match their southern counterparts.
"Weather really makes a massive difference to how you play the game, but if you go in with a positive intent - as all the teams did on the final weekend of the Six...

Summary: Six Nations sides must change their approach if they are to compete with the best in the world, says ex-Italy and South Africa coach Nick Mallett.
###
Article: The cost of watching football has been a hot topic of debate, with supporters at Liverpool organising a high-profile protest over proposed increases in season ticket prices.
Now the top flight's 20 clubs have "unanimously agreed" that more should be done to help away fans.
The £30 away ticket cap will be introduced from next season.
In a statement, the Premier League said away fans were "essential for match atmosphere" and helped make the league unique.
It also recognised that away fans often had travel costs to pay on top of the price of a match-day ticket.
Eight of 18 Premier League clubs who took part in the BBC's latest Price of Football study already offer away tickets for less than £30 for some matches.
But the study, published in October, also found that nine clubs charge more than £30 for their cheapest away ticket.
The change is likely to see travelling supporters paying more to watch second-tier football than top-flight games next season. The Price of Football study found 13 clubs in the Championship charge £30 or more for their most expensive away tickets.
The new measures will replace the Away Supporters' Initiative.
This was introduced in 2013 and saw clubs individually implement a range of measures, including travel subsidies, reciprocal pricing and reduced admissions as well as improved facilities.
The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) has long campaigned for cheaper tickets and wanted prices for away fans capped at £20.
FSF director of communications Michael Brunskill welcomed Wednesday's announcement, calling it "good news for fan groups around the country".
He added: "This shows that clubs will listen to reasonable, well articulated mass movements."
Labour's shadow Minister for Sport Clive Efford gave the announcement a cautious welcome.
"This is a welcome step in the right direction, but it is still £10 above the level that fans have called for," he said.
"The Football Supporters' Federation must be congratulated on the effectiveness of their Twenty's Plenty campaign."
Liverpool fans...

Summary: Premier League clubs have agreed plans to cap away tickets at £30 for the next three seasons.
###
Article: He is one of seven Milton Keynes drivers found to have criminal convictions in a council investigation.
The inquiry came after a convicted rapist had both his private hire and Hackney Carriage licences revoked last week.
Council leader Peter Marland said the authority would take action when it had the "full facts".
A council spokesman said the issue was its "highest priority" and it was preparing to interview all drivers it had concerns about.
The driver convicted of four sexual assaults, including rape, had been issued with a private hire vehicle licence in September 2011, despite councillors knowing of his convictions.
He was granted a Hackney Carriage licence last March.
Both licences were revoked last week after a member of the public raised concerns about him.
The council said it had begun a detailed review of licence holders, which found seven other drivers gave "cause for concern".
Labour leader Mr Marland told BBC Three Counties Radio: "At the moment we are doing all the background checks.
"One of those [seven] drivers has handed in his plates and we will take immediate action against the other six as we find out more detail."
Mr Marland could not give a time scale but said it would be "as soon as we possibly can".
"I think our cabs are safe, the vast majority of taxi drivers in Milton Keynes are good, law abiding people," he said.
Liberal Democrat mayor Subhan Shafiq stepped down after he was found to have personally vouched for the convicted rapist, describing the man as being of "good current character".
The chairman and vice-chairman of the licensing committee, Gladstone McKenzie and Stuart Burke, have also resigned.

Summary: A taxi driver convicted of a sexual offence has not had his taxi licence taken away, a council has said.
###
Article: That's 0.2% growth, on an annualised basis, so that means that there was negligible growth in the first three months of the year relative to the previous quarter.
The biggest drag on that growth was exports. Exports fell by 7.2% with a drop of more than 13% in terms of selling goods overseas. And that's the impact of a strong US dollar as well as disruptions at America's biggest ports.
The dollar has risen on the back of expected rate rises by the Fed, and has hit the highest level in more than 10 years against its trading partners.
That has hit the ability of US exporters to sell their wares overseas. Tellingly, services exports continued to grow by 7.3% since selling services isn't very dependent on the price but rather rely on the quality of what's proffered. It's also not dependent on ports.
A strong dollar, though, helps consumption and imports, which registered positive growth of 1.8%.
In other words, a strong dollar makes imports cheaper and keeps down price rises. Those imports feed into consumption, which expanded by 1.9%.
That's not the strongest growth rate, since there are also reports that cold weather made consumers reluctant to venture out and spend.
But it's a positive growth driver alongside investment, which also expanded by 2%. The final component of GDP, government spending, contracted by 0.8% due to continued cutbacks by state and local governments.
So, what growth the US economy eked out was due to private consumption and investment.
And that's been the traditional driver of the US economy - consumers. And, economists are already predicting that American consumers have completed their deleveraging process, so the engine of growth may well return later this year.
And thus the prediction that the Federal Reserve will begin to normalise, ie, raise interest rates, later in the year.
For now, the impact of anticipating rate rises has strengthened the US dollar since markets anticipate and "price in" what's expected to happen.
And that has dented growth now.
For the Fed, which concludes its...

Summary: The latest GDP figures for the US shows the economy has virtually ground to a halt as first quarter growth was just 0.2%.
###
Article: During busy periods, the taxi firm's customers are currently told they will be charged a "surge price" such as 1.7 or 2.3 times the standard fare.
Customers will instead be shown a fixed fee with a notice that "fares are higher due to increased demand".
One analyst said hiding the surge price multiplier could stop people being discouraged from using the service.
"I've been in the situation myself, where I've held off using an Uber during a surge," said Jim Clark, research director at Econsultancy.
"We are sensitive to price - as a nation we do like a bargain and that's one of the reasons they'll be making this change."
Uber told the BBC it was moving to a system where riders would know the cost of their journey before booking.  Presently, factors such as waiting time in traffic can increase the cost of a journey
In a blog post, Uber said it had started rolling out the change in the US and India in April.
It said more cities would follow suit, but told the BBC it had no timescale for implementing the change in the UK.
In addition to hiding the surge price multiplier, Uber is also removing an option that notifies customers when the surge price drops.
Uber said the changes made the app "clear and simple".
"There's no complicated math and no surprises - passengers can just sit back and enjoy the ride," it said.
However, Mr Clark said hiding the surge price multiplier could also have a financial benefit for Uber.
"There is the argument that it becomes quicker and easier to see the price," Mr Clark told the BBC.
"But I think that's an argument only Uber might make rather than anybody else.
"From a business perspective, it makes sense - it encourages people to use the service.
"But it's important to give users a choice of whether to wait - being given all the information is the spirit of the sharing economy. At the very least they could give users the option to switch the surge information on or off."

Summary: Uber is to hide surge pricing notifications for more of its users to make its app less "complicated".
###
Article: The 47-year-old was on a practice run for a race in an electric car for the Amazon Prime show when the vehicle burst into flames.
Hammond injured his knee and leg and in a blog entry says he had "two sleepless nights and several hours' surgery".
The ex-Top Gear host posted photos of himself on crutches and his stitches.
Another image shows his X-rays and the metal pins he has had inserted in his knee.
The presenter had sustained a fracture to the knee, a spokesperson for The Grand Tour said.
Writing on the Drive Tribe website, Hammond says: "I'm pleased to announce that after two sleepless nights and several hours' surgery, my Swiss Army Knee is finished and works.
"It bends in the middle and whilst a problem at airport security, is at least rustproof.
"Back in action soon."
The incident on 10 June, which took place as Hammond completed a hill climb in the Hemberg area, was described as a "serious crash" by The Grand Tour.
He had been driving a "Rimac Concept One", an electric super car built in Croatia, during filming for the show's second season.
A photograph shows the burned out car overturned in a field.
The Grand Tour said Hammond had "climbed out of the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames".
It added: "The cause of the crash is unknown and is being investigated."
The crash came 11 years after the presenter suffered life-threatening head injuries in a high-speed crash as he filmed for BBC's Top Gear.
He was in a coma for two weeks after losing control of a Vampire dragster at Elvington Airfield, near York.
The presenter suffered brain injuries and was in a coma for two weeks but made a full recovery.

Summary:


(Close): Wall Street markets rose on Friday, extending the previous day's rally and bringing the S&P 500 into positive territory for the year.

Article: Uber said the launch would take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It added that it was teaming up with Volvo.
At first, the vehicles will be supervised by a driver, who can take control if necessary, and an observer, Bloomberg reported.
The firm first revealed plans to replace human drivers two years ago.
More than one million people drive vehicles linked to its app, but are not directly employed by the company.
A spokeswoman for the firm told the BBC: "Starting later this month, Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved.
"In Pittsburgh, customers will request cars the normal way, via Uber's app, and will be paired with a driverless car at random. Trips will be free for the time being, rather than the standard local rate of $1.30 [Â£0.98] per mile."
She added that Volvo had already sent a small number of sensor-equipped XC90 sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to Uber, which would be used in the initial trials. The carmaker intends to have delivered 100 such cars to its partner by the end of the year.
Uber had previously used modified Ford Fusions to test its self-driving tech.
Volvo has confirmed it is taking part in a "joint project" between Uber and the carmaker.
"Both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of their own autonomous car strategies," the firm said.
"This will involve Uber adding its own self-developed autonomous driving systems to the Volvo base vehicle."
Engineers from both companies would collaborate on the project, the firm added.
"This alliance places Volvo at the heart of the current technological revolution in the automotive industry," said Hakan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo.
The Bloomberg story notes that the Volvo deal will not be an exclusive one and that Uber plans to work with other carmakers.
Uber's hard-charging founder Travis Kalanick has been outlining a vision of a self-driving fleet for some...

Summary: The ride-sharing firm Uber will, for the first time, allow users to hail self-driving cars within a fortnight, the company has confirmed.
###
Article: The 1920 film The Mark of Zorro and Peter Sellers' 1979 comedy Being There have also been chosen for preservation at the Library of Congress.
Documentaries, silent movies and one of the earliest film recordings made in 1894 are also on the list.
Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman said the film's inclusion was "an honour".
"Making Ghostbusters was one of the great joys of my life," he said.
"It's an honour to know that a movie that begins with a ghost in a library, now has a spot on the shelves of the Library of Congress. It's humbling to be part of a collection of extraordinary films that I have loved all my life."
The library makes the annual registry selections after conferring with members of the National Film Preservation Board, library film staff and considering thousands of public nominations.
Some 675 films are now on the list, which represent "important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in film-making".
Frank Darabont, director of The Shawshank Redemption, said he could "think of no greater honour" than for the film to be considered "part of our country's cinematic legacy".
"I express my deepest thanks to all those who chose it for inclusion in the National Film Registryâ€¦ and most of all to the audiences who embraced our movie and have kept it alive all these years."
Older films on the list include the 1959 melodrama Imitation of Life starring Lana Turner and Jimmy Stewart's psychological western Winchester '73.
The silent films selected this year include the Spanish-language version of Dracula from 1931, which was shot concurrently with the English-speaking film starring Bela Lugosi.
The oldest surviving copyrighted motion picture, which was produced by Thomas Edison's team of inventors is also on the list.
The Sneeze, which was filmed in 1894, became synonymous with the invention of movies.
Other films on the list that feature early cinematic techniques are Dream of a Rarebit Fiend made in 1906, using trick photography, and Disney's 1937 animation The Old Mill.
"Selecting a film for the...

Summary: Ghostbusters, Top Gun, The Shawshank Redemption and LA Confidential are among 25 films that have been added to the US National Film Registry.
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Article: Inflatables resembling characters from the popular game have been deployed to ward off nuisance gulls that cause mess in Rhyl during the warmer months.
Firms using the balloons say they keep gulls from street level.
But the council says they are now being removed by people "who take a fancy to them".
Angry Birds, which was created in Finland, is hugely popular with millions of people playing the game on smart phones, tablets, computers and games consoles.
Denbighshire council said a raptor-style kite it flew over Rhyl's streets to deter gulls last year had "worked well" but kept getting tangled on a post. And now its latest deterrent is also encountering problems.
"Yes, we know these weird 'Angry Bird'-type scare balloons look a bit daft but they do seem to work," says a council spokesperson.
"The only problem is that, while they may scare the seagulls away, not so for people who take a fancy to them and take them home with them."

Summary: 'Angry Birds' balloons being used to scare off a Denbighshire town's seagulls are also being taken by passersby, the county council has said.
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Article: The Japanese carmaker sold 7.5 million in the first three quarters of 2015, beating Volkswagen's 7.43 million and General Motors' 7.2 million.
After six months of the year, VW was ahead of Toyota, in pole position for the first time.
VW's emissions scandal emerged towards the end of September.
The discovery of software that was able to mislead emissions tests on diesel cars may have more effect on VW's sales in the remainder of the year.
Toyota's sales for the first nine months were 1.5% below the level at the same stage last year.
Toyota first overtook GM to take the top slot in 2008 and has kept it every year since, except 2011 when GM was the top seller after a tsunami in north-eastern Japan disrupted Toyota's production.
Separately, there was relief for General Motors on Sunday when it reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers union, averting a threatened strike.
Details of the four-year labour deal were not released. It will now go to a vote of UAW leaders and then the union's 52,700 workers at GM.
"We believe that this agreement will present stable long-term significant wage gains and job security commitments to UAW members now and in the future," said UAW president Dennis Williams.
The union had threatened that it would terminate its existing contract at midnight Eastern time on Sunday, meaning there could have been a strike.

Summary: Toyota has returned to the top slot in global vehicle sales after releasing figures for the first nine months of the year.
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Article: Ballot packs were sent to South Cambridgeshire District Council's 8,500 tenants on 17 October.
The council said "about 65" people had contacted it to say ex-partners or dead relatives had been put on the papers.
Councillor Mark Howell offered them "a heartfelt apology". The Electoral Reform Services has been informed.
South Cambridgeshire council tenants are being asked to elect new tenant representatives.
The council said its database did include up-to-date details of tenants who had either moved out or died, but "up to 600 were sent to people who previously held a joint tenancy and have moved out and in some cases passed away".
They learnt of the mistake on Tuesday, as a result of tenants getting in touch.
Mr Howell, who is cabinet member for housing, said: "Our team made a human error when running a report for the mailing and to avoid this happening again, all correspondence of this type will require double checking and final sign off from the head of service."
In 2008, the council made a similar error when it was balloting residents about whether they wished to remain as council tenants.
Mr Howell said that mistake was different: "In 2008, we didn't have sufficient data on the databases.
"What happened here was we didn't press the right button."
The Electoral Reform Services has been informed and it will make sure the mistake does not affect the outcome of the election, the council added.

Summary: "Human error" led to ballot papers being sent to former and deceased council house tenants, a Cambridgeshire council has admitted.
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Article: The S&P 500 climbed 8.7 points to 2,049.29, as it ended the day above where it had closed at the end of 2015.
The Dow Jones was up 117.59 points to 17,599.08, having itself moved into positive territory for the year on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the tech-based Nasdaq rose by 20.66 points to 4,795.65.
Investors remained positive after Wednesday's Fed decision to maintain interest rates between 0.25% and 0.50%.
The Fed also signalled that there would be fewer 2016 rate rises than previously expected.
The news helped raise banking stocks. Goldman Sachs shares climbed 3.1%, while JP Morgan gained 2.9%.
Microsoft was one of the Nasdaq's main movers, losing 2.4%.

Summary:


The Pirate Bay website has been relaunched.

Article: They believe the two suspects acted along with Abdelbaset al-Megrahi - the only person to have been convicted of the atrocity.
The BBC understands the pair are Mohammed Abouajela Masud and Abdullah al-Senussi.
A total of 270 people died when the Pan Am 103 flight was blown up on the evening of 21 December 1988.
The flight was on its way from London to New York when it exploded above Lockerbie, in southern Scotland, killing everyone on board and 11 people on the ground.
Senussi was the brother-in-law and intelligence chief of former Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi. He is currently awaiting execution in a Libyan jail.
Masud is reported to be serving a prison sentence in Libya for bomb making.
Both men were named as possible suspects in the bombing by an American TV documentary last month.
Scotland's Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC recently met the US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, in Washington to review progress made in the ongoing investigation.
They have now requested permission from the Libyan authorities for Scottish police and the FBI to interview the two new suspects in Tripoli.
A Crown Office spokesman said: "The Lord Advocate and the US Attorney General have recently agreed that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and US investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie.
"The Lord Advocate has today, therefore, issued an International Letter of Request to the Libyan attorney general in Tripoli which identifies the two Libyans as suspects in the bombing of flight Pan Am 103.
"The Lord Advocate and the US Attorney General are seeking the assistance of the Libyan judicial authorities for Scottish police officers and the FBI to interview the two named suspects in Tripoli.
"The two individuals are suspected of involvement, along with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, in the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 in December 1988 and the murder of 270 people."
The Libyan attorney...

Summary: Scottish prosecutors want to interview two Libyans they have identified as new suspects over the Lockerbie bombing.
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Article: The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission says apprenticeship starts for under-25s rose by 4% from 2010-14 , compared with 17% for over-25s.
And most training courses taken were not a step up from the apprentice's previous level of study, it added.
No 10 said it was committed to getting more young people into apprenticeships.
The commission welcomed the government's efforts to improve the number and quality of apprenticeships and said that for too long the vocational route to qualifications had been seen as an option for "other people's children".
But the report said: "The overall growth in apprenticeship starts has been driven by large increases in participation by over-25s.
"While youth apprenticeships have roughly flatlined since the early years of the decade, starts by over 25s are over 150,000 higher in 2014/15 compared to 2009/10.
"In comparison to this increase there were over 5,000 fewer apprenticeship starts by under-19s in 2014/15 compared to 2010/11.
"And there were around 1,000 fewer 19-24 apprenticeship starts in 2014/15 compared to 2011/12."
If this was projected forward, then adult apprenticeship starts would continue to increase, while youth starts would stagnate or decline, it added.
The commission also highlighted how the vast majority of apprentices were studying at levels below their age.
For example, 68% of A-level age apprentices were studying apprenticeships at GCSE-level and 98% of degree-age apprentices were studying at A-level equivalent or lower, the report said.
It also highlighted how many youth apprenticeship starts were in sectors associated with lower pay and prospects for progress, such as hairdressing.
Commission chairman Alan Milburn said: "The government is committed to giving all young people a chance to make something of their lives, but the current drive to increase the number of apprenticeships isn't delivering for people under the age of 24.
"The number of young apprentices has flatlined since 2010 and many of these apprenticeships don't offer young people a...

Summary: The government's apprenticeships drive is failing to deliver for young people in England - with enrolments flatlining among under-25s, a commission says.
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Article: The Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was intended to move the BBC away from using and storing video tape.
But it was scrapped, with almost no results, after five years of development.
After investigating the demise of the project, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has branded the programme "a complete failure".
Chairman Margaret Hodge said the BBC needed to "overhaul" its approach to such projects, to "safeguard licence fee payers' money".
The BBC originally approved DMI in 2006. It was supposed to produce new editing tools, an online archive of the BBC's programmes and a new database.
Technology company Siemens was hired to develop the project in February 2008, and it was expected to be completed the following year.
However, after a series of delays, the project was brought in-house, There it floundered until last May, when the BBC's incoming director general, Tony Hall, admitted it had "wasted a huge amount of licence fee payers' money".
The gross estimate of the amount spent on DMI was £125.9m, although the BBC claims to have recouped £27.5m of that.
The BBC's technology chief, John Linwood, was sacked in July 2013 over the project's demise.
A previous report, by the National Audit Office (NAO), blamed "confusion and a lack of planning" for the failure.
It said that senior executives failed to take control of the project when it ran into trouble and "did not appear to appreciate the extent of the problems until a late stage".
The PAC published its own findings on Thursday. It reiterated several of the points raised in earlier reports and criticised the BBC for its failure to alert MPs of the problems.
"When my committee examined the DMI's progress in February 2011, the BBC told us that the DMI was... absolutely essential... and that a lot of the BBC's future was tied up in the successful delivery of the DMI," said Ms Hodge.
"The BBC also told us that it was using the DMI to make many programmes and was on track to complete the system in 2011 with no further delays.
"This turned out not to be the case. In...

Summary: The BBC was "far too complacent" in its handling of a failed IT project that cost licence fee payers £98.4m.
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Article: Game creator Sports Interactive will provide information for Prozone Recruiter, an online analysis tool used by many clubs to scout talent.
The Football Manager database will supply biographical, contractual and positional details to Prozone.
"The database is a highly accurate and valuable resource," said Prozone chief executive Thomas Schmider.
"It will further enhance the recruitment services that we provide."
Prozone conduct performance analysis and will use the game's information in their system, which aids clubs in their player recruitment.
Football Manager studio director Miles Jacobson added: "For years we've heard stories of real-life managers and scouts using our data to help with the recruitment process.
"From now on, it's official. Real managers around the world will be finding and comparing players using data and a search system that will be very familiar to players of Football Manager."

Summary: Premier League clubs are to use the database of computer game Football Manager to help recruit new signings.
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Article: Getting a letter of thanks from Judge Dredd is though.
Sylvester Stallone has written to the City of London Police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit after a man was arrested in Halifax on suspicion of leaking the Expendables 3, which Sly co-wrote and starred in.
The man is accused of leaking a series of Hollywood films, either pre-release or whilst they were in the cinema.
In a press release, the police unit, which operates nationwide, say it's estimated the suspect had already cost the film industry "millions of pounds".
The arrest on Thursday was the result of an investigation launched in July 2014 by the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations unit, who got a tip off from an industry insider.
After the raid, Sly thanked the police in both Britain and the US, saying: "It is important to protect the rights of creatives around the world from theft."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube.

Summary: Arrests for pirating films are nothing unusual.
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Article: A counter at thepiratebay.se showed a countdown to 1 February, but it appears to have come back online a day early.
The website, which provides links to pirated content, was taken offline following a raid in Sweden in December.
Police officers seized servers in Stockholm after a complaint was filed by a group called the Rights Alliance, which targets internet crime.
The police operation took place in an area in Nacka, south-east of Stockholm, with the area's cold weather used as a natural cooling system for computer servers.
The site was taken down in 2006 after another raid by police but reappeared online three days later.
The Pirate Bay is one of the internet's most-visited websites, and the film, music and software industries blame it for losses running into billions of pounds.
Internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK were ordered by the High Court to block access to the site in 2012.
In October Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Warg was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for hacking into computers and illegally downloading files.
Another co-founder, 35-year-old Peter Sunde, was arrested in Sweden last year after two years on the run and was sentenced to eight months in prison for violating copyright laws.
Meanwhile a third co-founder, Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij (known to hackers as TiAMO), was arrested while trying to cross into Thailand from Laos in November.
A message from "Winston" on the newly-relaunched site reads: "So, first we ditched the trackers. We even got rid of the torrents. Then we left the servers to enter the clouds.
"Now, we're about to take the biggest step in our history."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube

Summary:


"Action is needed" at homes for the elderly run by Cornwall Care, after the company took its "eye off the ball", the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

Article: It analysed 40 years of observations of six big ice streams draining into the Amundsen Bay and concluded that nothing now can stop them melting away.
Although these are abrupt changes, the timescales involved are likely measured in centuries, the researchers add.
If the glaciers really do disappear, they would add roughly 1.2m to global sea level rise.
The new study has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, but Nasa held a teleconference on Monday to brief reporters on the findings.
Prof Eric Rignot said warm ocean water was relentlessly eating away at the glaciers' fronts and that the geometry of the sea bed in the area meant that this erosion had now entered a runaway process.
By David ShukmanScience editor, BBC News
West Antarctica is one of the least accessible parts of the planet and it takes a huge effort to research the changes under way there. Nearly a decade ago, I joined a flight on an old US Navy patrol plane that made a gruelling 11-hour round trip from the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas to Pine Island Glacier, which lies among the glaciers featured in these latest studies.
There was no possibility of landing and, if the worst were to happen, there was no-one close enough to offer any kind of rescue.  This is research at its most daring. On board was a team from Nasa whose instruments were measuring the elevation and thickness of the ice below us. Even at this stage, it was clear that the glacier, far larger than anything you might see in Europe or North America, was speeding up.
Now the scientists have the benefit of repeated flights, copious satellite images and data from field trips. There is still a lot they do not understand about the pace of change and therefore the speed with which the melt will contribute to sea level rise. But the more detailed the research, the sharper the picture of rapid change.
"We present observational evidence that a large section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has gone into a state of...

Summary: Key glaciers in West Antarctica are in an irreversible retreat, a study team led by the US space agency (Nasa) says.
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Article: That is a notion raised by Daniel Finkelstein in The Times today. This idea - which has fans in Westminster and Whitehall - strikes me as a misreading of the situation in Europe.
This idea has arisen because Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, is a game theorist, a type of economist who studies interactions in simplified versions of reality.
These stylised scenarios are known, in the jargon, as "games". Famous ones you might have heard of include "the Stag Hunt", "The Ultimatum Game" and - most famously - "the Prisoner's Dilemma".
One famous game is called "Chicken". Imagine two cars racing towards one another. If neither swerves, both drivers lose. If either swerves, however, that person is deemed to lose.
This is a bit like the Greek negotiation. Neither side wants to give in first, but neither side wants to end with no deal.
This is a hard game to be good at - unless you can send a worrying signal to the driver of the other car.
You could try to convince the other driver that you have no control of the car, so they will be forced to move.
Rip off the steering wheel and wave it out of the window, perhaps? Or you could behave like you enjoy crashes - or are indifferent to the pain they cause. That, Lord Finkelstein has suggested, was part of the Greek negotiating strategy.
Lord Finkelstein wrote: "Varoufakis believed that if his negotiating partners - the Germans, the IMF, the Commission - concluded he was a bit bonkers, a bit reckless, they would appreciate that he might crash the Greek economy and bring down the whole edifice of the euro on top of him. Persuading your adversary that you are mad is a classic game theory gambit."
I think you can understand the Greek position much more simply: they predicated their negotiating position on notions that turned out to be untrue.
Here is another simple idea from game theory: a classic negotiation between two parties is best understood by looking at ideas called the "outside option" and the "inside option".
The outside option is the outcome for...

Summary: Was the Greek negotiating strategy with the Eurogroup designed to convince the rest of Europe that the Syriza government was mad?
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Article: And this "always on" culture - exacerbated by the smartphone - is actually making us more stressed and less productive, according to some reports.
"Something like 40% of people wake up, and the first thing they do is check their email," says Professor Sir Cary Cooper of Manchester Business School, who has studied e-mail and workplace stress.
"For another 40%, it's the last thing they do at night."
The Quality of Working Life 2016 report from the Chartered Management Institute earlier this year found that this obsession with checking emails outside of work hours is making it difficult for many of us to switch off.
And this is increasing our stress levels.
So what can we do about it?
The more enlightened firms have been stepping in to help. In 2012, Volkswagen began shutting off employees' email when they are off shift.
Daimler has allowed its workers to have all the work emails they receive while on holiday automatically erased. And France's new labour law, enacted a few weeks ago, encourages all companies to take similar measures.
Dave Coplin, Microsoft UK's chief envisioning officer, believes artificial intelligence tools will learn when we are busy and block alerts, waiting until we're less busy before bringing us the most relevant or interesting messages.
"The idea is to develop tools that help us knife and fork our way through deluges of information," he says.
Much of Microsoft's work centres on its personal assistant, Cortana.
Other firms are experimenting with social media-style messaging in an attempt to escape the tyranny of email.
Some tech firms believe monitoring our computer behaviour is a first step in seizing back control of our work-life balance.
Robby Macdonell from Nashville Tennessee, founded tech start-up RescueTime because he was so frustrated not knowing where his days were going. He was being distracted too easily.
"These alerts are very well designed to capture your attention and stimulate the parts of your brain that say, 'I have to react to this right now'," he says.
He developed a...

Summary: We are the distracted generations, wasting hours a day checking irrelevant emails and intrusive social media accounts.
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Article: Steven Smeaton was found dead in the city's Forester Street early on 7 September. He is thought to have fallen from a window of a top-floor flat.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner's (PIRC) investigation will focus on the police's response to an earlier disturbance.
The case was referred to the commissioner by the force.
A spokesman for PIRC said: "The Police Investigations & Review Commissioner is carrying out an investigation following the death of a 33-year-old man outside a residential property in Dundee on 7 September 2016.
"The investigation will focus on Police Scotland's initial response to a disturbance in the vicinity in the hours prior to the man's death.
"The matter was referred by Police Scotland for investigation and a report on the PIRC's findings will be submitted to the deputy chief constable in due course."

Summary: The police watchdog has launched an investigation following the death of a 33-year-old man in Dundee.
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Article: Promising not to cheat.
Or more specifically, to sign up to an honour code - or "honor code" in the US spelling - in which they pledge to uphold values of academic integrity.
It means students at the prestigious US university have to commit themselves not to cheat in exams, make up figures or dishonestly claim other people's work as their own.
It's not just a one-off promise.
Brett Flehinger, Harvard's associate dean of academic integrity and student conduct, says students now write their own "personal response" to the pledge before starting term, reaffirm their commitment when registering and then again before taking exams.
The message is about "changing the culture", says Dr Flehinger, with a more overt assertion of the principles of academic honesty, rather than just chasing grades.
"Students are under a lot of pressure, not all of it healthy," he says. And the honour code is meant to re-balance this.
"What we're trying to say to students is that accuracy and honesty are the foundation of all academic work and knowledge, scientific, humanities and social sciences," says Dr Flehinger.
Members of the Harvard College community commit themselves to producing academic work of integrity - that is, work that adheres to the scholarly and intellectual standards of accurate attribution of sources, appropriate collection and use of data, and transparent acknowledgement of the contribution of others to their ideas, discoveries, interpretations, and conclusions.
Cheating on exams or problem sets, plagiarising or misrepresenting the ideas or language of someone else as one's own, falsifying data, or any other instance of academic dishonesty violates the standards of our community, as well as the standards of the wider world of learning and affairs.
Harvard's adoption of an honour code follows a high-profile cheating scandal in 2012. On one exam paper, more than a hundred students were investigated and about 70 subsequently faced sanctions.
What really rocked this institution was the scale. For a university used to...

Summary: Students at Harvard this term have been doing something for the first time in the university's long history.
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Article: The CQC previously rated the Penberthy home in Newquay as inadequate.
New reports highlight problems at three other homes run by Cornwall Care: Headlands in Carbis Bay, Trevern in Falmouth and Blackwood in Camborne.
Cornwall Care said it was rare for an inspection not to point out areas for improvement.
The CQC said Headlands was "unsafe" and overall "was not caring".
At Trevern "one person had not been able to have a bath or shower for eleven months due to the home not obtaining the appropriate bathing equipment to meet the person's needs," the report stated.
Action was also needed to address the "care and welfare of people who use services" and the "safety and suitability of premises," it was claimed.
The report on Blackwood said "people did not always have access to meaningful activities" and action was needed regarding the "safety and suitability of premises".
Due to changes in CQC reporting procedures the reports did not give an overall rating as it has done for Penberthy.
Adrian Hughes, the commission's deputy chief inspector of adult social care, said there had been "slippage" in services provided by Cornwall Care.
He said: "They have taken their eye off the ball in some aspects of that care."
A spokesman for Cornwall Care said: "We have worked closely with CQC and commissioners for many years and it is rare that an inspection of any care service does not point out areas for improvement.
"We welcome that feedback and always act quickly to make sure we are offering the best possible service to our clients."

Summary: